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Phlatscript Version 0.923 Chat

Discussion in 'SketchUcam DOWNLOAD' started by kram242, Feb 28, 2010.

  1. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Talk about all the new cool features of the Phlatscript version 923 release here :)
    This is a great release guys and we know your going to love it!
    Have fun and we can't wait to see the doors this new version opens
    Mark and Trish
     
  2. xtremeRCpilot

    xtremeRCpilot Member

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    WOW, this is Awesome guyz!!! :p
    One question As far as the multipass is concerned, will this generate and cut each part complete before moving to the next part? Unlike the manglerizer , which is great but it cuts one path to each part in a specific order and them comes back and does the next path which could cause for inconsistencies if you have a large file of parts :)


    Than you
    John
     
  3. xtremeRCpilot

    xtremeRCpilot Member

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    OK I just ran a file in Mach set up with the new Multipass and I have one word
    AWESOME!!!!
    So I guess I answered my own question!!! :D
    Thank you guyz for another great job!!!!

    John
     
  4. firetrappe

    firetrappe Member

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    WOW! I've just had a play with the new Phlatscript and it looks like it's save a lot of time with both preparing files and cutting them :cool:
    The new Centerline functionality will be a massive time-saver for pocketing. One query I have is how the centerline tool determines which direction (CW / CCW) it cuts around a closed path? I quickly tried adding a centerline to some text and it seemed quite random.

    Thanks to the coders and beta-testers for all your hard work.

    Si.
     
  5. mavacpjm71

    mavacpjm71 New Member

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    WOOHOO!!!

    Another milestone for the PhlatScript! This will take us to a whole new level, way to go to all the coders. YOU ROCK!!! :mrgreen:

    -Peter
     
  6. rayclark

    rayclark Member

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    New script looks great. Can wait to put it to use on some projects I've got planned.

    Thanks guys. You rock!!!

    RC
     
  7. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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    Hey Si,
    You might need to weld the lines before applying the centerline tool to make sure it doesn't pick at it randomly. As far as direction goes, that I'm not sure about.
     
  8. MartinT

    MartinT Member

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    W O W!
    Verrrry nice! thank you for all the hard work that must have gone into it!

    I found only one bug: the depth setting of the multipass in the parameters menu accepts ONLY decimal fractional numbers, if you set it like 1mm (or set it like 1 if you have the preferences set in mm) it will only cut 1 pass like a regular cut.
    (so if you want to make a 1milimeter multi depth pass you will have to type 0.0394)

    Another bug (which was in the previous version as well): If the preferences of SU are set to metric, every time you call up the Phlatboyz parameters menu the safe length and width are shown in the conversion from metric to inches (like in the preferences I have set the safe area to 1000millimeter by 500milimeter; but the numbers shown in the boxes are: 39.3700787401575 by 19.6850393700787 (which is the inches equal of the metric milimeters above) however, when the parameters menu is closed, the safe area is now resized to 39mm by 19mm.
    The workaround to prevent this from happening is, everytime the parameters are called up, you HAVE to retype the size of the safe area (this can be done in metric)
    All the other boxes (like Material Thickness, tab width and so) work correctly.
    Nothing to worry about, but you have to know your way around them...

    Thanks again for the new version!

    Martin
     
  9. frankrcfc

    frankrcfc New Member

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    I just downloaded it and got it installed. The new features are going to be nice to incorporate into my designing .Looks real good to me so far. Thanks for the ever increasing great software. ;) Really makes it a joy to work with Sketchup.
     
  10. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

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    Just had a quick look. Tried out the multipass and working fine. Check out the video. Is that some wasted motion, in the multipass? -Kwok

    Attached files PS_multipass_extra motion.wmv (147.6 KB)Â
     
  11. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    That's strange I had never noticed that happening.
    It would be hard to see on the Phlatprinter with media your cutting covering the bit.
    Good find Kwok
    Are you using ncplot?
    Mark
     
  12. gasmasher

    gasmasher New Member

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    Yes, the bit does fully retract to the specified safe depth after every pass. This is partly due to the structure in the gcode output classes and partly because I didn't think it was worth the effort to eliminate it. I haven't taken time to rewrite and restructure that portion of the code yet.
     
  13. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

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    Mark, yes, that's ncplot. Unfortunately, simulation is only a feature of the pay version.

    Tim, I feel your pain. Just throw it to the back of the infinite list of things to do. :) I guess, I shouldn't speak so loudly.

    -Kwok
     
  14. gasmasher

    gasmasher New Member

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    Nonsense. I have no problem with people pointing out the problems. That one was known I just didn't think it was worth the effort.
     
  15. gizzmo

    gizzmo New Member

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    If I'm not mistaken, the script is actually not metric ready (it is in the feature request list).
    So yes, it translates Metric measurement to Inch (strangely enough not for the preferences of bit diameter and some others)

    @Martin ... what is you current setup? Sins you are able to use the script in a Metric setup?
    Is you Gcode in mm or in inch?
    Tell me your secret, that way I can use the scrip myself, until gasmasher finds some more of his valuable time to implement this feature.

    Many thanks to all the people who made this new script possible!!
    GreetZ
     
  16. gasmasher

    gasmasher New Member

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    gizzmo and MartinT, there is another user that I spoke to yesterday that says he does just about everything in metric in SU just because he prefers it. Before generating the gcode he uses a plugin that switches between mm and inches. I'll ask him to post some info on his work flow in case it is a workaround until the PS is made unit agnostic.

    The plugin is around here somewhere and just provides an easy to use tool button that does the same thing as the preferences window in SU.
     
  17. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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    Here is the link for the toolbar that I posted that allows you to switch between mm's and inches in Sketchup easily.
    http://phlatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=381
     
  18. todd

    todd New Member

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    I really like the multi pass feature. The optimization has a glitch when you have multiple rows of items (well I think that may be the problem). The output generated the lines in reverse order. So for a rectangle ABCD it output AB, CA, DC then BD, breaking the element into segments rather than recognizing the lines as connected.

    This is the output at about line 1233:

    G17 G2 X 10.314961 Y 14.723122 Z -0.125000 R 0.812992
    G0 Z 0.050
    X 10.561561 Y 14.745271
    G1 Z -0.125 F 100
    G17 G2 X 10.542120 Y 14.742384 Z -0.125000 R 0.812992
    G0 Z 0.050
    X 10.580784 Y 14.749373
    G1 Z -0.125 F 100
    G17 G2 X 10.561561 Y 14.745271 Z -0.125000 R 0.812992
    G0 Z 0.050
    X 10.599710 Y 14.754674
    G1 Z -0.125 F 100
    G17 G2 X 10.580784 Y 14.749373 Z -0.125000 R 0.812992
    G0 Z 0.050
    X 10.618266 Y 14.761153
    G1 Z -0.125 F 100
    G17 G2 X 10.599710 Y 14.754674 Z -0.125000 R 0.812992

    The arc has being drawn as 50 separate little lines. And all subsequent entities are also broken down in to line segments.

    All told it looks very good and I appreciate all the effort put into this. Wish that the sketchup bridge worked on OSX so I could use the debugger to find out more.

    Thanks
    Todd Bates Attached files Adder 2.skp (153.5 KB)Â
     
  19. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

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    Todd,

    I've never seen a part drawn like that, before. No doubt that is the source of your problem with the rectangles. I've redrawn it for you and reduced the segments in the arc from 48 to 16. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think sketchup has true arcs?

    -Kwok

    Oh, something else. I just replaced the sketchup files, with a new one. I see it had been downloaded 1 time. I had to move the part up off the origin to get that bottom part to generate gcode.



    Gashmasher, I get an error when I try to plot this cnc file with gplot:


    Attached files Adder 2 (work copy).skp (95 KB)Â Adder 2.cnc (32.3 KB)Â [​IMG]
     
  20. kyyu

    kyyu Active Member

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    Todd,

    Your question on the arcs got me interested and I decided to look into it. Basically, sketchup doesn't have true arcs. They will always be like a segment polyline. But the phlatscript has been updated with true arcs. So check out this video. I guess the thing to remember from it is, course looking circles/arcs are fine in sketchup and will become true curves in the phlatscript. And there will be less lines of code, too. -Kwok

    Looks like this only works with outside and inside cuts; not centerlines.

    Tabbing could be a problem because, right now, the tabbing on arcs extend the entire segment.

    Attached files Arc in sketchup and phlatscript.wmv (2.4 MB)Â
     
  21. gizzmo

    gizzmo New Member

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    This looks nice :)
    But you will still need to generate the Gcode in Inch ... Right?
    I'm asking this because my CNC setup is metric (Mach3 and Proxxon MC70)
    And I don't really look forward switching it all to the imperial system.
     
  22. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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  23. gasmasher

    gasmasher New Member

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    You shouldn't have to reset your entire machine to inches, just let the gcode interpreter know what the file is using. That is what the G20/21 codes are for. I have not tested this in Mach but it may be worth a shot.

    G20 and 21 belong to a modal command group. This means the one that was set last is the mode the interpreter will use until it reaches another command in the same group. You may notice that PS puts a line like this at the top of the output file just after the comments.
    [pre]G90 G20 G49[/pre] The G20 tells Mach that the units that follow are in inches. G90 sets absolute programming, all coordinates are referenced against an origin. G49 cancels all active tool offsets.

    edit: Thanks Shaun, you are always one step ahead of me ;)
     
  24. gasmasher

    gasmasher New Member

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    Thanks for the tip, I'll have to add better error checking to the file parser. Unfortunately gcode doesn't support nested comments so this line [pre](File: Adder 2 (work copy).skp)[/pre] makes the file invalid. I think this points out problems in the Phlatscript and GPlot. EMC will refuse to load that file so it shouldn't have been output by PS.
     
  25. TigerPilot

    TigerPilot Well-Known Member

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    I never use the center-line tool. I find that I have to use the fold tool to achieve what I want. If I have a square and than I divide it in two with a line down the middle, I can not use the center-line tool to cut the center line only. It will select more than just the one line, most likely a whole rectangle. It's been a problem I'm having since the first center-line tool came out. An added benefit to using the fold tool in the above example is that after the fold tool the outside tool will do the square in one shot, not like before where it will do one rectangle at a time.
     

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